The primary target was the city of Kokura, but clouds obscured it. Thus Sweeney and his crew flew Bockscar, while The Great Artiste repeated its role as the observation aircraft, but with Bock and his crew aboard. To eliminate the need to remove and reinstall complex scientific equipment from The Great Artiste, Sweeney and Capt. 9, with Sweeney at the controls, B-29 Bockscar took off before dawn from the island of Tinian with a second atomic bomb aboard (only two bombs were available). The devastation caused by the bomb brought no response to the demand for unconditional surrender, and conventional bombing raids continued.
Sweeney, commander of the 393rd Bomb Squadron, accompanied the Enola Gay on the mission, piloting the B-29 The Great Artiste as an observation aircraft. 6, 1945, when the crew of the B-29 Enola Gay released an atomic bomb over Hiroshima, Japan.
